Kosovo: Background on Gender-Selective Atrocities, 1998-99

January 1999:Massacre at Racak

[The offensive in Kosovo as NATO bombs were falling was the continuation of longstanding Serb aggression against the Kosovar population. As has been standard throughout the Balkans war, earlier actions also featured a murderously discriminatory policy towards males, especially "battle-age" men. The largest gender-selective slaughter occurred in the village of Racak on 15 January 1999. What follows is excerpts from the "Special Report: Massacre of Civilians in Racak," "compiled by international monitors who were in the village before and after the killings," and published in The New York Times on 22 January 1999.]

Jan. 8. The police informed the KVM [Kosovo Verification Mission] of a KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army] attack on police vehicles near Dulje (west of Stimlje). A KVM patrol already in the area had heard the shooting and on investigation found the scene of an ambush against police vehicles. Two policemen were dead and another two wounded. Three Albanian civilians in a taxi were also wounded. It appears they had inadvertently driven into the ambush. KVM evacuated an injured policeman and the three civilians to Prizren hospital. Later, KVM were informed that one of the wounded policemen had died, raising the total fatalities to three. Prizren Regional Center comments that this was a well-prepared ambush. ...

Jan. 14. KVM patrols received reports of bombardments of the villages of Javor and Luznica (northwest of Stimlje). ...

Jan. 15. The KVM reported a serious deterioration of the situation in the Stimlje area. Racak, Malopoljce, Petrova and Belince villages (south and west of Stimlje) were all affected. Verifiers saw houses burning in Racak and Malopoljce. KVM patrols witnessed VJ tanks and armored vehicles firing directly into houses near Malopoljce and Petrova. VJ and police forces prevented KVM patrols from entering the area, but late in the afternoon a KVM patrol did get to the village of Racak. Verifiers saw one dead Albanian civilian and five injured civilians, including a woman and a boy suffering from gunshot wounds. The KVM also received unconfirmed reports of other deaths. Residents of Racak claimed that men had been segregated from women and children and that 20 males had been arrested and taken away. ...

Jan. 16. KVM teams that included human rights verifiers went to Racak village. ... By 1250 hours, the first confirmed reports were received of civilians having been killed. The accounts of surviving residents said that the killing had taken place of [sic] Jan. 15. They said that following VJ and police attacks, security forces had entered Racak at approximately 0700 hours. ... They claimed these forces had executed some residents and detained others. Additionally, the survivors reported that they recognized some of the policemen as being from Stimlje. ...

The first KVM teams to arrive in Racak on Jan. 16 in the early morning found the following:

Twenty-three adult males of various ages. Many shot at extremely close range, most shot in the front, back and top of the head. Villagers reported that these victims were last seen alive when the police were arresting them. ...

Three adult males shot in various parts of their body including their backs. They appeared to have been shot when running away. ...

One adult male shot outside his house with his head missing ...

One adult male shot in head and decapitated. All the flesh was missing from the skull.

One adult female shot in the back ...

One boy (12 years old) shot in the neck.

One male, late teens (shot in abdomen).

1998: "Serb Forces Said to Abduct and Kill Civilians in Kosovo"

The New York Times, 17 July 1998
by Chris Hedges

Decani, Serbia -- Serbian forces have been turning increasingly to the abduction and execution of small groups of civilians in their fight against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, according to human rights officials and witnesses.

Many of the executions took place moments after Serbian special police units concluded attacks on villages held by the Kosovo Liberation Army rebels, witnesses said.

"The number of disappearances are increasing each month," said Behxhet Shala, secretary of the ethnic Albanian Council for Human Rights. "There is a mathematical logic to all this. As the Kosovo Liberation Army kills more police, the police go out and hunt down civilians who live in the areas where the attacks take place. These are reprisal killings."

Some 300 ethnic Albanians are listed by human rights officials as missing since March, when the conflict intensified between the rebels and the 50,000 or so Serbian soldiers and policemen deployed here. Some of them may have fled to Albania or Montenegro and others may be living with relatives elsewhere in Kosovo. But some were seen by witnesses being led away by special police units, never to reappear.

[...] Visits to six of the sites where kidnappings and executions by Serbian forces are said to have taken place yielded accounts by witnesses and a look at the bodies of some of the victims. But the precise number of those executed is difficult to determine.

Based on the accounts of witnesses from each area, it appears that a total of about 100 ethnic Albanians, most of them men of fighting age, have been rounded up and shot, usually in groups of fewer than a dozen, in the last five months.

[...] The detained men were often marched in single file by the black-uniformed Interior Ministry commando unit to the local water treatment plant, which was used as a command center [...] Not every ethnic Albanian who is picked up by the police disappears permanently, but the fear of being seized has become common in these villages. Many of those picked up return after a few days, complaining of beatings and other ill treatment at the hands of the police.

According to witnesses, the largest number of killings occurred in the villages of Likosane and Cirez at the end of February, in the village of Prekaz in the first week of March, in the village of Poklek at the start of May, in Ljubenic at the end of May and in Decani in June.

On May 30, special police units entered Poklek and ordered most of the residents into a house owned by Shait Qorri.

Fazli Berisha, who was outside the village hiding behind a wall, said he saw 60 or 70 women and children ordered out of the house as Serbian forces burned neighboring homes. The women were told to walk across a field to Vasiljevo, a neighboring village, he said.

"Hajirz Hajdini and Mahmut Berisha were brought out moments later and told to walk in the opposite direction," he said, referring to two men. "As they walked away they were shot by the police. Sefer Qorri, 10 minutes later, was brought out of the house and told to walk in this direction. He was shot in about the same spot."

The villagers said they later found the body of Ardian Deliu, a 17-year-old youth, near Vasileva, about two miles away, but they said nine men remain missing.

Amnesty International

Report: EUR 70/33/98
June 1998

Drenica, February-April 1998

From the end of February 1998 a marked and
extreme increase in police and, increasingly,
military actions in the areas where the

Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, or in Albanian
Ushtria ) is
reported to have a strong presence [which] has resulted
in hundreds of killings, many of which
Amnesty International believes to have been
extrajudicial executions and the consequence
of excessive use of force. This report features
detailed information on three such police or
military actions in the Drenica area of Kosovo
province: at Likosane and Cirez villages (28
February-1 March); at Donji Prekaz (5-6
March); and at Glodjane (24 March).

This report also features cases of
human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by
the KLA in and around Glodjane in the weeks
after the police action there in March.
Towards the end of May 1998 the Yugoslav
authorities stated that at least 25 civilians had
been killed by armed ethnic Albanians since
the beginning of the year. Amnesty
International is not able to verify this figure or
the circumstances of each case, but opposes
the deliberate and arbitrary killing of civilians,
prisoners or others who have been rendered
defenceless. The deliberate killing of people
taking no active part in hostilities contravenes
minimum standards of human behaviour and
is prohibited under the laws of armed conflict.

Violence has escalated still further
since the events described here occurred.

Unlawful killings and extra-judicial executions during
police/military operations
Likosane and Cirez villages, 28 February and
1 March 1998

On 28 February and 1 March 1998 Serbian
police killed 26 ethnic Albanians in the
villages of Likosane and Cirez (Likoshani and
Qirez in Albanian). Four police officers were
also killed.

Comparing the official accounts of the
events and the evidence collected from
independent sources, two very different
accounts emerged. According to the police,
one of their routine patrols was attacked near
Likosane at 12.30pm on 28 February and two
police officers were killed. Reinforcements
were brought in at around 2pm, who then
fought with armed ethnic Albanians through
until the next day, during which time two
more police officers and 16 of the Albanians
were killed. However, reports from ethnic
Albanian witnesses contradict this version,
saying instead that the confrontation began on
the evening of 27 February when armed men,
believed to belong to the KLA, fired from a
vehicle at a school housing Serbian refugees
(from Croatia or Bosnia) in the nearby town of
Srbica (Skënderaj in Albanian).

Police reportedly gave chase to their vehicle which
stopped at a bend near Likosane and the
occupants fired back at the police. Police
reportedly brought in reinforcements during
the night, while the armed men of the KLA
may well have reinforced themselves to fight
an expected police action.

In summary, in the fighting which
occurred during the night of 28 February and
the early hours of 1 March, the police used
helicopters and armoured vehicles in the
operation, and were armed with machine guns
and rocket-propelled grenades. It appears that
although there was resistance from the KLA,
those fighting for it were outnumbered and
they withdrew from the area allowing the
police to move in. Amnesty International
believes that most of the ethnic Albanians who
died were killed after the KLA's withdrawal.

Rukije Nebiu, a mother of two who
was pregnant with her third child, was one of
the 26 Albanian victims. She was killed in her
house in Cirez village; pictures of her body
indicated that she had been shot in the head
with a high velocity weapon (see cover
photograph). Rukije's husband Xhemsir
Nebiu and her brother-in-law Ilir Nebiu were
also shot in or close to the house. Other
victims in Cirez included 63-year-old Ajet
Rexhepi and four brothers from the Sejdiu
family including 24-year-old twins Nazmi and
Bedri who were also reportedly found dead in
their house.

Among others, 10 male members of
the Ahmeti family, aged between 16 and 50
years, were killed, apparently in extrajudicial
executions, in Likosane. Mirsije Ahmeti,
whose father and three brothers were killed,
was reported in the Belgrade weekly Vreme as
describing how the police came to their house
at about 4pm on 28 February, ordered the
occupants onto the floor at gunpoint, locked
the women and children in one room and took
the men out.The men were at first believed
to be missing and were apparently not counted
in the 16 dead first reported by the police (the
police in any case did not issue the names of
the dead). On 2 March their bodies were seen
in the morgue in Pristina (Prishtinë in
Albanian), the capital of Kosovo Province, by
somebody who was able to identify them
and they were returned to the village for
burial on 3 March.

Visitors to the scene including
representatives of the Belgrade-based
Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) observed and photographed blood, teeth and what
they believed to be brain tissue on 1 March
in the yard of the Ahmeti house. They also
observed the words: "This is what will happen next time, too," written in Serbian on the wall. It is unclear whether all of the
blood and body parts came from the
Ahmetis; one local journalist who visited the
scene believed that some traces may have
come from an injured KLA fighter who may
have come to the yard at some point and that
his trail of blood may have led police there.

According to the HLC, 70-year-old
Muhamet Djeli and his son Naser were
killed in the house opposite that of the
Ahmetis. Muhamet was killed in an
outbuilding and Naser was killed in the next
room in the presence of his wife and two
children. He had been hit by a bullet which
came through a window that had been
covered with a mattress. A trail of blood
indicated that he had been dragged outside,
but his body was taken to the Pristina
morgue by police.

The HLC also reported that although
many of the bodies were taken to the
morgue, there were no signs that autopsies
had been performed on them, nor on the
bodies which were left in the village. To
Amnesty International's knowledge, to date
no investigations have been carried out into
the killings.

Killings in Donji Prekaz, 5 and 6 March 1998

Photo: "Unidentified victim" ofDonji Prekaz massacre.

On 5 and 6 March special police forces carried
out another operation around the village of
Donji Prekaz, some 10 kilometres from
Likosane. At least 56 ethnic Albanians were
killed in this operation. The main target of this
operation was the home of Adem Jashari. He
had been convicted in absentia of terrorism
in an unfair trial in a court in Pristina in July
1997 and was sentenced to 20 years'
imprisonment (the trial is described in the
accompanying document Unfair trials and
abuses of due process, #4 in this series, AI
Index: EUR 70/35/98). In public statements by
the police since the trial he had been referred
to as being a KLA commander. At the trial
itself he was alleged to have received military
training in Albania, to have recruited men to
fight with the KLA and to have ordered and
taken part in armed attacks against the police. [...]

Although the full information about
what happened in Donji Prekaz on 5 and 6
March is still not available, Amnesty
International is seriously concerned that at
least some of those killed were extrajudicially
executed and that others may have been
unlawfully killed as a result of the excessive
force which was used without regard to the
fact that women, children and men who were
not armed were among those in the houses at
the point they were attacked by the police.
There appears not to have been any intention
to effect the arrest of armed suspects in the
village with proper precautions and while
minimizing the use of force in order to protect
life, as both national and international law
requires. Rather, the operation appears to
have been carried out as a military operation
by forces under apparent orders to eliminate
the suspects and their families.

The police operation was carried out
or at least led by officers of the Special Police
Units (Posebne Jedinice Policije - PJP). These
are elite units which are trained for special
operations, such as dealing with hijacking. It
is impossible to ascertain how many police
officers were involved, but it seems likely that
there were several hundred men. They were
dressed in combat uniform, operated in
military formations, and were supported by
armoured personnel carriers (APCs) armed
with heavy machine guns and cannons of at
least 20 millimetre calibre. Besides vehicle-
mounted weapons it appears that the police
also carried heavy machine guns, rocket-
propelled grenade launchers, assault rifles and
sniper rifles. Some reports indicate that 81
millimetre mortar rounds were also fired in the
attack. Witnesses claimed that much of the
police's firing at the village emanated from the
disused hunting ammunition factory in the
vicinity of the village where they had
previously established a presence. This factory
appears to have been used as the base for the
operation.

In a report by the Serbian Ministry of
Internal Affairs made public on 10 March the
Ministry claimed that Adem Jashari had been
involved in the attack on the police patrol near
Likosane on 28 February. The report also
stated that there was another attack on a police
patrol near Donji Prekaz on Thursday 5 March
at dawn (at around 5.30 that day), and that
following the deployment of a strong police
presence, the terrorist group retreated to the
stronghold on [sic] the Jashari compound.

However, witnesses interviewed by
Amnesty International and others give
accounts which give strong reason to question
this version of events. In particular witnesses
from other parts of the village than the
Jasharis' report the police moving in on and
shooting at their homes from as early as
5.30am. Witnesses from the Jasharis' part of
the village described how their part was fired
upon from about 6.30am.

It is more difficult to estimate the
degree of resistance offered by the armed
ethnic Albanians in the Jashari compound and
other parts of the village, particularly as some
witnesses may have been reluctant to reveal
knowledge of this. On the basis of what can be
ascertained or deduced, it appears that each
family or group of families gathered women,
children and men who were not carrying arms
into the safest room in each house.
Meanwhile, some or all of the male members
of each family repelled the police attack with
arms. It also appears that they were expecting
the police to attack, as they had done in the
police action against the Jashari house in
January, and in the incidents around Likosane
a few days before. Nevertheless, it is evident
that they were outnumbered, and had fewer
and inferior weapons than the police used.
They may well have had dozens of men armed
with assault rifles and some other weapons
such as anti-tank weapons. The degree of
resistance offered from each house or group of
houses also seems to have varied, but it is
clear that the strongest resistance came from
the Jashari compounds.

The only reported survivor from the
compound where Adem Jashari's closest
family members lived was an 11-year-old girl,
B.J., who spoke to foreign and local
journalists. She told reporters how her family
sheltered together during hours of firing in
which her house was repeatedly hit and then,
when the firing ceased, how she found the
dead bodies of her three sisters: Blerina (age
seven years), Fatima (eight) and Lirie (10)
and then of her mother and four brothers.
Because of the lack of other witnesses and the
concealment or destruction of evidence which
will be described later, it is extremely difficult
to reconstruct what happened in the compound
except for what the girl told journalists after
her escape.

Around 35 children, women and some
men gathered in a house across the track from
Shaban Jashari's compound during the attack.
Amnesty International interviewed most of the
family groups which had been sheltering in
the house. In their testimony, which was taken
at separate locations, they largely corroborated
each other, confirming details of the attack as
a whole and describing in various degrees of
detail the extrajudicial execution of three of
the six men who had been with them and the
wounding of a fourth.

The witnesses stated that after hearing
the start of the attack at around 6.30am or 7am
they gathered in the house of Beqir Jashari
which had the strongest walls and was in the
middle of the row of houses. They remained in
the house listening to the sounds of the attack
on the other houses until about 1.30 that
afternoon. At this point they stated that the
second and then first floors of Beqir Jashari's
house came under fire and that the roof and
upper part of the house started to collapse.
Police then came close to the house and
witnesses describe how a tear-gas grenade
(this could possibly have been a smoke
grenade) was thrown and the gas or smoke
came into the room through the broken
windows. Police then ordered the people to
come out of the house one by one, calling in a
mixture of Albanian and Serbian. In the
confusion (the children did not understand the
orders) the people in the house came out in
groups with the men among them, some
dressed in women's clothes. The men were
picked out after they came out.

The first victim appears to have been Qazim Jashari,
a 47-year-old teacher, who was stopped by
police and shot just as he emerged from the
house. The next victim was 26-year-old
Nazmi Jashari whose killing several
witnesses described. Nazmi Jashari was
walking with his 70-year-old mother. Her
account of his killing, parts of which follow,
was corroborated by several other witnesses
who were interviewed independently by
Amnesty International:

When we arrived at the door of the yard he
said to 'me let me help you'. ...When we
went out of the yard my son held me. He told
me 'okay mother let's go', the only thing
which I know from him. In front of the house
when we were stopped they [the police] took
my son from me. ... I told him go and leave
me here because nothing will happen to me.
He didn't say anything to me and they took
my son from me until I turned my eyes to
him .... they ordered my son to lay down
then they searched him and ordered him to
get up again and he did that. Again to lay
down, they did not find anything, no
weapons. I saw with my eyes how they
prepared their automatic weapons, two of
them, one on one side and another on the
other, they shot him between the shoulders
I saw that with my eyes and screamed at
that moment 'Please God, I rely on you!' ...
I didn't know what else I could say. I held
those two walking sticks. I felt that my feet
where completely cold. I could not feel
them, I didn't know that they were mine. I
saw how he was still he didn't move he
seemed to be sleeping. I thought to go and to
see him one of the police ordered me: 'Don't
move!' He did not let me and I was just
staying and looking. Then I wanted again to
go and to cover him. I wanted to take this
[her scarf] off and one of them turned a gun
to me, but he didn't let me.

Examination of pictures of the body of
Nazmi Jashari by a forensic pathologist
consulted by Amnesty International indicated
injuries which are broadly consistent with the
accounts of him having been extrajudicially
executed, albeit there are discrepancies
between the witness accounts and the
pathologist's analysis of the precise manner in
which Nazmi Jashari was shot. The
photographs showed entry wounds from
bullets to his chest. At least one of the entry
wounds showed marks which may have been
the result of gasses as the muzzle of the gun
pressed against his chest as it was fired.
Nazmi's face was also caved in - the
pathologist concluded this was either the result
of blows from an object such as a rifle butt or
his face having been stamped upon.

Beqir Jashari (43) managed to get
out with the rest of the people who had
sheltered in his house in the confusion as the
police killed Qazim and Nazmi. He was
reportedly shot as they fled up a hill close to
the cordon of police on the outside of the
village. Riad Jashari (16) was reportedly shot
and injured before he reached the hill but
survived to flee with the assistance of the
others.

Whether or not all or some of the men
who had been in the Beqir Jashari house,
whose killings the witnesses described, were
bearing arms during the police attack it is
important to stress that in the witnesses'
accounts they had ceased to offer resistance
and had effectively surrendered themselves to
the police. [...]

Witnesses from other places in the
Jasharis' part of the village described
variously how they were ordered out of their
homes or how their homes were fired upon.
Some hid in their own or neighbours' houses
for two or three days. The houses in the
Jasharis' part of the village were rendered
uninhabitable; houses appeared to have been
deliberately set on fire and parts were
bulldozed with tracked vehicles during the
operation. Elsewhere in the village the
inhabitants managed to flee or hid in their own
or other houses. Some of those who hid did
not get out until the following day, 6 March,
or in some cases even 7 March.

In the aftermath of the incident,
around 56 people were buried, amid some
confusion. For example, at least two of the
bodies handed over by the police came from
Lausa village and had been killed in another
incident. Some of the bodies were not
identified because they had been badly burnt.
Of around 41 bodies which were identified 12
were women and 11 were children up to 16
years of age. Most of the victims identified
came from the compound of Adem Jashari and
the houses close to it.

Some of the survivors believe that
bodies still remain in the ruined houses.
In the absence of more detailed
evidence, the conclusion must be, at the very
least, that the victims who were clearly not
using arms - that is the women and children at
least - and about whom there is not witness
testimony, died as a result of the excessive use
of force by the police in contravention of
international standards on law enforcement.
Little regard appears to have been taken of the
fact that unarmed people were present in the
houses. The women and child victims
appeared to have died as a result of different
combinations of shrapnel injuries, bullet
wounds and falling debris inside the houses.
International standards such as the UN Body
of Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms
by Law Enforcement Officials specify that
intentional lethal use of firearms may only be
made when strictly unavoidable in order to
protect life. In particular no warning was
given of the intention to use force before at
least two houses were attacked with heavy
machine guns, cannons and probably mortar
rounds. In witnesses accounts they were only
called by the police to come out after several
hours of bombardment by the police. [...]

Gender-Selective Atrocities: Amnesty Cops Out

In areas of civil turmoil or armed conflict, women are
particularly vulnerable to human rights violations. They are
often subjected to brutal treatment simply because they
live in a particular location or belong to a particular group.

This report aims to illustrate the human rights situation of
women, primarily ethnic Albanian women, in Kosovo
province of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by
highlighting a number of representative cases. The report
does not claim to depict the full range and severity of
human rights violations against women which have taken
place and which, as armed conflict persists, continue to
occur daily. Ethnic Albanian women are the victims of
human rights abuses now, but since the early 1980s there
have been cases in which ethnic Albanian women have
shared the fate of many of their menfolk and like them
have been arbitrarily detained, ill-treated and convicted in
unfair trials. With the outbreak of armed conflict, they now
also face mass forced displacement and the risk of
deliberate and arbitrary killings. [...]

Question: How can women be "particularly vulnerable" when the abuses referred to are "cases in which ethnic Albanian women have shared the fate of many of their menfolk and like them have been ...", etc.? The disproportion clearly operates against males, from the way the passage is phrased; so why not a report on "Human Rights Violations Against Men" as well, and first?

Ethnic Albanians unseen since entering police stations or
being led away by Serbian police... Serbs and Albanians
taken from vehicles stopped by the armed ethnic Albanian
opposition, hauled off trains, or unseen since armed
Albanians came to their homes... People unaccounted for
in the aftermath of armed police operations or military
engagements, who may be among the hastily and
anonymously buried...

In Kosovo province the “disappeared” and “missing” come from all ethnic groups. The police are
believed to be responsible for the “disappearance” of ethnic
Albanians. Many of those who have “disappeared” were
reported to have been arrested and led away by police,
either captured or detained in the context of clashes
between the police or paramilitary police and the armed
opposition group the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), or
arrested far from the scene of conflict. The KLA has been
accused of the abduction and presumed unlawful killing or
detention of ethnic Albanians whom it alleges are
“collaborators” with the Serbian authorities, although they
have failed to define what they understand by
“collaboration”.

Other victims include members of the Serbian,
Montenegrin, Romani and other ethnic groups. The
apparent lack of consolidation in the KLA's central
command structure and the reported inability of the
leadership to exercise full control over its various local
groupings increases the difficulty of ascertaining the fate
of those reported to have been abducted by armed
Albanians. It is still too early to ascertain accurate
statistics for “missing” or “disappeared” ethnic Albanians. [...]

Now let us look at a typical passage from the report itself:

"Disappearances in Situations of Armed Conflict"

The early part of 1998 saw the beginning of a disturbing series of reported
“disappearances” as well as many cases of "missing" persons and others
who are unaccounted for. It is feared that some - perhaps all - of these people
are no longer alive.

The "disappearance" of eight men from Novi Poklek, 31 May 1998

Ahmet Berisha (40), Hajriz Hajdini (48), Muhamet Hajdini (45), Sahit
Qorri (60), Sefer Qorri (55), Ferat Hoti (39), Rama Asllani (60) and Blerim
Shishani (15) were inhabitants of Novi Poklek (Poklek i Ri), a settlement
which was built in recent years on the edge of Glogovac close to a factory
called Feronikl. On 31 May a large operation was mounted by the police in
and around the settlement.

On the afternoon of 31 May at about 1pm a large force of police arrived in
several dozen vehicles at the outskirts of the settlement. After firing at the
houses from a distance, patrols of police reportedly started to go from house
to house in the settlement, ordering the inhabitants out of the buildings. Many
of them were reportedly collected in a house in the settlement where men
were separated from women and children. The women and children were
directed to leave.

Reports of the events include allegations that nine or more men were killed.
Despite the lack of confirmed information, the whereabouts of the eight men
named above who were reportedly detained by the police remains unknown.
Amnesty International believes that these eight men have “disappeared”, and
may have been the victims of extrajudicial executions.

The bodies of two other men, Ardian Deliu (18) and Fidai Shishani (17),
were reportedly found at the scene, but it has not yet been possible to
establish the circumstances of their death.
Several differing rumours about the fate of the "disappeared" men have
circulated, including claims that bodies or body parts have been seen in the
village; that the police were seen apparently transporting prisoners in the
direction of the Feronikl factory where they are being held, or that they have
been killed and buried in a mass grave. One witness reported that he had
seen two of the men fall to the ground after being fired upon, but was unable
to state categorically that they had been killed.

On 11 June a group of lawyers from Pristina, who have been given power of
attorney by relatives of the "disappeared" men, addressed a letter to the
Serbian and Federal judicial authorities and police. In that letter they claimed
that nine men had been killed and asked for an investigation into the incident,
for the bodies to be located, an autopsy to be performed on them, and for the
bodies to be handed over to the relatives for burial. The letter has been
acknowledged by the district court, but to Amnesty International's knowledge
no other replies have been received from the authorities, nor has there been
any announcement that any investigation into the incident has begun.

Ethnic Albanians “disappeared” following reported arrestsby police in
the zone or current armed conflict

There have been several reported cases in which Albanians “disappeared”
following arrest or detention by police in different contexts related to the
current armed conflict.

School caretaker Idriz Idrizi (43) “disappeared” on 23 January 1998,
reportedly on the way home to his village of Gornji Prekaz (Prekaz i Epërm)
after visiting the town of Srbica (Skënderaj). The route passed a former
hunting ammunition factory which lies between the outskirts of Srbica and the
village of Donji Prekaz (Prekaz i Pushtëm). Serbian police units had
established a base inside the factory from which they had the previous day
mounted an unsuccessful attack on the home of Adem Jashari, later killed
during the attack of 5-6 March described below (see page 8).

Although the circumstances remain unclear, he was reportedly passing close
to the factory on this route when he was called in by someone behind the
perimeter fence. He has not been seen since. Local police reportedly told
members of his family that he was being detained in the factory, although
they did not consider this information to be reliable.

On 6 March the factory was used by the police to hold men detained during
their operation against Donji Prekaz. Some of the detained who were
interviewed by representatives of the Humanitarian Law Centre described
being beaten in the factory compound before being transferred to a police
station in Srbica. However, none were aware of other detainees who were
already being held there.

On 20 June Jakup Qerimi (27) from the town of Urosevac (Ferizaj), said by
Albanian sources to be mentally retarded, was reportedly arrested by seven
police officers following a quarrel with a member of the security services. When
his mother approached the police seeking information about her son she was
reportedly told that he was a member of the KLA, and when she persisted in
her requests, mentioning that she knew the officers who arrested him, she
was reportedly told that she would never see him again. She has received no
further news of her son.

On 6 July, in the village of Dobri Do (Dobërdol) near Pec (Peja), 10 men from
the village of Rudica (Rudicë) in the Klina area, who had reportedly gone to
the village intending to help evacuate their relatives, were arrested by persons
variously described as Serbian police or paramilitaries. Eyewitnesses report
that they were taken by tractor towards the neighbouring village of Gorazdevac
(Gorazhdec).

On 17 July seven of these men appeared in court in Pec, where they are
detained while being investigated for “terrorist” activities. According to
statements made by these men to their lawyers and during their court
appearance, they had been detained by Serbian paramilitaries and taken to
Gorazdevac where they were handed over to police. In their statements they
reported that the three men who did not appear in court, Nimon Bajraktari
(51), Haki Ahmetgjekaj (23) and Bashkim Mehmetaj (22), were separated
from the rest of the group before the handover to the police took place, and
that they did not see them again. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

On 29 June Izet Ajazi (40), employed in the state electricity industry, was
travelling by bus on the route from Pristina to the village of Magura (Magurë).
Part way through the journey, at Velika Slatina (Sllatinë e Madhe) police
separated him and five other ethnic Albanians whose names have not been
made public and forced them off the bus, leading them away. Their
whereabouts remain unknown.

There has apparently been no attempt by police or other authorities to
investigate this or any other of the incidents detailed in this section.

Human Rights
Watch today interviewed
the sole survivor of a
September 26 summary
execution of thirteen men
by Serbian police. The
witness gave a coherent
and credible account of
the summary execution
which was corroborated
by the evidence found at
the execution site and the
testimony of another
witness interviewed by
Human Rights Watch on
September 29.

Human Rights Watch expressed serious concern today
about the safety of the survivor in light of the Serbian police
presence in the region, and called upon the international
community to take the necessary steps to relocate this
important witness to a safe location. Furthermore, the man
has a severe and infected gunshot wound on his upper left
leg, as well as gunshot wounds on his left arm, and is in need
of immediate medical attention. "The survivor is a credible
witness to a summary execution, and the ability to bring the
perpetrators of this serious war crime to justice hinges on his
safety," said Holly Cartner. "The international community
must take immediate steps to insure that he is safe and his
testimony is preserved."

During an interview today, he told Human Rights Watch that
the inhabitants of his village Golubovac in the Drenica region of Kosovo had fled into the nearby
forest on Friday morning after Yugoslav forces began shelling around the neighboring village of
Cerovik. The villagers spent the night in the forest.

According to the survivor, Serb police sent several elderly ethnic Albanian villagers who had
remained in Golubovac to the forest on Saturday morning to tell the civilians taking shelter there
that it was safe for them to return home. When they attempted to return, they were then
gathered in a field by a group of about thirty or forty police officers, and the men were
separated from the women and children. The police initially chose about twenty-five men from
the larger group of men, but then narrowed this group down to fourteen men who, according to
the survivor, would later be lined up and shot.

The survivor told Human Rights Watch that the fourteen were beaten with fists and rifles and
kicked with boots while being questioned by Serb police about ties to the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA). The process of separating the men and their subsequent interrogation lasted for
about two hours. The men were then taken to the road next to the execution site, where they
were forced to crouch with their hands behind their backs for an extended period of time.

The survivor told Human Rights Watch that the men were then led into a garden and ordered to
lie flat on the ground, face down with their hands behind their backs. They were told that if they
identified KLA members in their midst everyone else would be freed. During this time, the
survivor reported being beaten on his back with sticks and kicked all over his body. He showed
Human Rights Watch deep bruises on his back and buttocks that were consistent with this
account. He also described in detail how the men were executed, relating how a single police
officer first executed the man lying next to the survivor and then two other men nearby. The
police officer then moved up and down the column firing a burst of automatic gunshots at each
victim. Several of the men were kicked afterwards and one man was shot again when he
displayed signs of life. The witness apparently survived because he was able to feign death when
being kicked. The police left the site almost immediately after the execution and the survivor was
helped from the scene by local villagers.

The testimony of the survivor was coherent and credible, and matched the testimony of an
earlier witness previously interviewed by Human Rights Watch, as well as the evidence
inspected at the execution site on Tuesday. Along a fence within a family compound, Human
Rights Watch inspected many pools of fresh blood on Tuesday and found over eighty bullet
shells at the spot where the witnesses claimed the policeman fired. The site was also visited by
diplomatic observers on Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch is greatly concerned about the health and safety of the sole survivor, who
remains in the Drenica region, which is under heavy Serbian police control. Human Rights
Watch calls upon the international community to assist the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in bringing the survivor to a safe location, and demands that the
Yugoslav authorities and police and military forces refrain from any actions that would
jeopardize the safety of this important witness.

The violations of humanitarian law being committed in Kosovo fall under the jurisdiction of the
ICTY. By taking immediate steps to collect and preserve evidence and witnesses' testimony, the
Tribunal will not only increase the chances of ultimately bringing the perpetrators to justice, but
also of deterring future abuses. However, time is of the essence if the tribunal is to fulfill its
enormous deterrence potential. Much more intense and timely attention to ongoing atrocities are
required.

In order for the ICTY to meet this challenge, it must have sufficient capacity and equipment on
site to conduct an immediate investigation when allegations of atrocities emerge. Further, its
investigators, including forensic experts, must have unimpeded access to the sites of recent
abuses. To date, the Yugoslav government has denied entry visas to forensic teams,
investigators of the ICTY, and other respected and impartial international organizations in a
blatant attempt to prevent international and independent scrutiny of the abuses committed by its
forces. Human Rights Watch calls upon the international community to assist the ICTY in
developing such urgently needed capacities, and on the Yugoslav government to provide
immediate access for the ICTY and its independent forensic experts to carry out investigations
into allegations of mass graves and other atrocities in the region.